A Proper Ending
by Uniasus
Summary: Ed knows what's waiting for him at the end of the road, but others don't seem to agree.


**Disclaimer**: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.

**Edit 11.17.09**: I got a comment that there was some confusion, turns out my scene dividers didn't transfer through from Word to . Hopefully this makes more sense now!

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A Proper Ending

She finds him tucked up in a corner of the library, surrounded by leaning towers of books and pages of coded, legible-to-the-author-only notes. His brother is no where in sight, either looking for more volumes to surround the corner with or getting something for Ed to eat because there is no way he will move from his spot until he finds what he's looking for. Or forcible moved once he falls asleep.

Usually she would pass him with a faint, I-should-have-known smile, but there is something different today. He sits hunched as always, book on the right and pencil gripped in his left hand. But he is not avidly going from one to the other and his eyes are not scanning at a rapid pace. Instead of looking outward they are looking in, and while she can tell he is distressed she knows he has been learning from the Colonel. There is a mask preventing her from understanding what he is thinking.

Colonel Mustang she is able to read because of all the time they have spent together, through work or otherwise. She has learned what little tell tale signs to look for and what they would mean. Edward's mask is a new one, still stiff at times and thus hard to control. If she wants to learn this one too, it is best to start now.

"What are you reading Edward?" she asks once she is practically at his shoulder.

The pencil snaps in half and his face turns up to her in surprise, he had not heard her approach.

"Opengeym."

"Is there something wrong with what he has to say?" She doubts it, he is barely through the book, but things like this are best not to be approached directly.

"Yes," he growls, causing her to loose her mental footing. She searches her mind for some type of response, but apparently he wants to rant about his dislike of the author.

"He's got a God complex, seems to think that alchemists are privileged beings. And some more so than others," he leans back in his chair, crossing his arms with a huff. "If you get a transmutation wrong, then you obviously aren't privileged enough to know how to work it and any consequence that occurs you deserve for over stepping your bounds!" He is hissing softly yet still with a bite of anger, throwing his hands up in the air. "If your first earth transmutation fails, then you don't deserve to continue it and there is no point in continuing in that field cuz you will never succeed."

If you've failed at bringing back someone you loved, that failure is justified and you deserve to live with the consequences because you are to stupid to know your boundaries. She understands now.

"That's false Edward," she bends down so the height difference is less, so she can look into his eyes and he will know they are equals. "We only deserve what we work for, and I know what you should get."

"What's that?" he snaps.

"A happy life against all odds."

* * *

He snarls as the Chibi catches him by surprise and a right hand of metal connects with his solar plexus. He is knocked off balance and the blond midget presses his advantage and lands a kick. The second punch he dives under and the feel of human skin meeting his fist makes Envy smile.

The blonde is forced backwards, but he stays upright; the blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth is wiped away by a hand.

Envy hates this Elric, this other son. He takes comfort in the fact that the Chibi has her name and not his, but what they have in common is still too much for his preference and what they do not he desperately wants. Hohenhiem tries to protect these boys; Envy is cast aside and not shown an ounce of life.

"You're dead," his father's voice rings in his ears and a burning hate ignites in his breast every time the words sound in his head and echo in his non-beating heart.

The Chibi charges agian. He absorbs the blow of the kick, and then snaps his own knee up. His opponent had used his flesh leg, so Envy aimed for the tender flesh on the inner thigh. The alchemist starts to sink and Envy forces him to do it quicker, applying a super human punch to his temple. The teen drops, still conscious unlike others he has fought over the countless lives he has lived, dazed.

Envy pushes his own advantage, capturing the blonde's wrist in a hand and forcing them above his head, his other hand applying pressure to the teen's throat. He leans close, his mouth just inches from the other's ear and stray golden strands of hair.

"One of these days, you'll get what you deserve."

"And what is...that?" Ed gasps. Envy decides he likes this feeling, ignoring the squirming wrists.

"Death, absolute and complete, but slow in coming. So slow that you will beg for it a thousand times before I finally give into your wishes."

The teen beneath him growls, the wrists make a violent motion and with a flash of light there is suddenly a spike through his forehead. His grip goes slack, and while he can feel his enemy free himself Envy cannot do a thing about it as his body regenerates. He rights himself with a last bit of energy.

"There is something else I'm waiting for," those golden lion eye say, but before Envy can respond military backup arrives and he slips into the night.

* * *

Ed knows what he has coming for him. He sees it every night.

His punishment, his due, comes from a large set of grey stone doors, several stories tall and carved with alchemical symbols and words. After what he did to his brother, his mother, he knows he deserves nothing less then going through the same thing himself.

It does not scare him, frighten him, not any more. He knows it is coming and knows it is fitting.

What scares him is the change that this equivalent exchange will never come to be. Others have different ideas of what his due end is, and as good or bad as they are they all hollow him out with a feeling of wrongness. And does not everyone deserve to feel complete, to be satisfied yet tortured after they go for all they have done in their lives? Peace would seem wrong, and pain too quick and easy.

He deserves a life time of hell.

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**A/N:** Aha! I know I really haven't come up with anything for this verse for while, and this bug hit me while at work the other day and I figured I'ld post it so you guys can see what I've been working on for NaNoWriMo. Well, that's a lie, this fic has been stuck in my head every since I first heard Linkin' Park's song New Divide. Send me a review if you enjoyed.


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